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Jean welcoming U.S. President Obama on his official visit to Canada on Feb. 19, 2009, the Governor General is dashing in a Russian military-styled greatcoat and fur hat.
(Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)

Whether you’re reading this column with a cup of coffee on your cottage dock, or over a long leisurely brunch on a downtown patio, here’s a thought for Canada Day: the outgoing Governor General, the Right Hon. Michaëlle Jean, who has just been appointed UNESCO envoy to Haiti, is the most stylish representative this country has seen since Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Some have pegged her as a lightweight for mixing up her West Coast mountain ranges. Others have faulted her for allowing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to prorogue Parliament (twice!), even though in doing so, she wisely sought the advice of the country’s premier constitutional legal mind,Peter Hogg (he literally wrote the book).

What is clear is that whether Michaëlle Jean was dressed to the nines in sleek purple silk for a state dinner with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meeting U.S. President Barack Obama at the Ottawa airport in February in a Russian military greatcoat or palling around with the troops in Afghanistan wearing an Afghan-styled scarf over one shoulder of her elegant black suit, she gave the office, and the country, more style and presence than it’s had in years.

Unlike her predecessors, those dull, virtually indistinguishable white men whose portraits line the halls of power, the eminent and admirable Adrienne Clarkson, whose queenly bearing and arty, menopausal robes only heightened the perception of the role as outdated Ms. Jean was able to express the new swagger we have developed as a modern, multicultural nation with its own emerging brand of chic.

It didn’t hurt that she is gorgeous, and as a seasoned television personality, both telegenic and comfortable in front of the camera.

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But former prime minister Paul Martin made an excellent choice with Ms. Jean for another reason: as she has shown in her years as the Queen’s representative (let’s face it, a rather ceremonial position) a warmth with others that comes across as genuine. So much so that she positively shines with it: flipping channels with the TV remote one dull night, I recall happening upon one of those interminable Governor General awards ceremonies on community cable, and being struck by how much the woman was able to connect with every person, making each one feel special in the long queue of honourees.

The true nature of her role as a dignitary was, in a way, to be the country’s hostess. And as much as people like to put that down as unnecessary, it is nonetheless a vitally important role.

Style may be in the presentation, but the presentation itself is far from pointless. Being the hostess with the mostest is about acknowledging others with graciousness and putting them at ease — a role I would argue, in these increasingly socially abrasive times, can only be saved from extinction by example.

Which is why, to me, the most stylish moment in Jean’s tenure was when, on a visit to the north, sitting with a group of Inuit women who were carving up a seal with a tribal ulu knife, she not only got in there with the ulu and helped, but unapologetically ate a piece of the seal heart the women offered her in front of the cameras.

As she evenly explained to her detractors at the time, who were oh-so ready to denounce her for her political incorrectness, the heart is the most valued part of the seal in Inuit culture and being offered it was an honour she would never refuse, but a treasure —reminding us that the culture of the north is our culture, and that this, like so many other parts of the crazy-quilt mosaic, is part of our identity, too.

Yes, Governor General Michaëlle Jean was well dressed. She carried herself with elegance and élan and was always appropriate. But as she ably demonstrated over the past five years, style is about more than the clothes.

Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. See more at karenvonhahn.com and contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com

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